According to a study of more than 2,000 twins aged 70 and older, back pain in old age is seldom genetic. Instead, the findings indicated individual environmental effects were found to explain roughly 75% of the occurrence of back pain in men and 100% in women. In other words, what largely determines whether we are likely to suffer from back pain relies heavily on what we expose our spines to and how we choose to treat back injuries, should they occur.